Benefits of Longhand. Is it Really the Best Method?
There is a lot material out there on how much better it is to write things out by hand. Some of these benefits are accurate and some, not.
It’s great for increasing focus on your writing because you don’t have the distractions from the internet and social media.
You do it more slowly and that is a benefit because it makes you think about what you are doing.
Another plus is that you are less likely to self-edit because it takes much longer for you to write longhand than on nice neat computer screen. It seems most of us don’t want to waste that kind of time when using pen and ink or pencil.
If you like to doodle or draw if you get a bit stuck, you can’t do that on your computer unless you leave your current program. On paper, you can go ahead and doodle without losing your flow to your creative process.
You use more of your senses which is great, especially for learning.
But this is where the benefits pretty much stop. Not bad. But not what a lot people think.
For example, there are those who think writing longhand makes you more confident. There is no evidence of this that will hold up.
There is a belief that it will increase your critical thinking skills. Now this has more relevance. Since you are working more slowly, you are thinking more actively about what you are writing, and it leads to introspection which is a good thing. So, probably.
It will increase your reading and writing capabilities. There is no way to tell. You can’t do a study with a control group. What are you going to do have a group of children who you prevent from learning to read or write?
Hmm, this reminds of the brilliant idea of teaching children to read by writing only. Ugh. The kids were to “write” stories without having been taught any basics. They were taught the ABC’s but as for spelling etc., no.
After their “writing” work the teacher would pass out a book to each student and they were to read from it, cold. They were supposed to just magically be able to read it from looking at it. A dumber idea, I have never heard.
It should be noted that the “teachers” who “taught” this way were WAY off from what they were supposed to be doing through the writing to read program.
It’s practice and mastery of reading and writing that help boost self-confidence and increase writing and reading capabilities. When children practice writing their letters, they learn to recognize them better (probably what triggered the writing to read program) but they need both. Gee, what a surprise.
Some believe that writing things out longhand increases your creativity. This one doesn’t fly.
First, you have to decide how you will measure creativity. That is too broad to do. (I was suspicious of this claim from the get go). Are you really going to tell those who cannot possibly write out anything longhand that they are not as creative because they rely on dictation methods and computers to write their essays, poetry, stories, and books?
Hey! That’s me! One of the best things to ever happen to me was the ability to do all of my writing on the computer. I’m dyslexic and do much better on the computer because I can see mistakes much faster because I’m typing, uh, keyboarding with my hands and watching the screen while I type, er keyboard, key, keying?
I also have horrible handwriting. It’s so bad that when I was tested for learning disabilities in college, part of my diagnosis was dysgraphia.
Having said that I do write some things out longhand, like poetry and sometimes a rough draft of an outline.
Did you notice that? It doesn’t have to be all one thing or the other. You can mix and match. Using your computer for some things and using longhand for others. You get to pick.
So, to write longhand or computer? Easy answer, do what works for you. Experiment! Let me know what works for you. Leave your answer in the comments below.
Resource. I read the following article in Time Magazine by Tanya Basu on this same topic. In it she gives some of these example by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University.
